Furniture Forum

Utilizing Dark and
Light Furniture

Employing dark and light furniture is not just a trend.

While furniture does indeed run
in fashion trends, there is more than that to utilizing light
and dark furniture in your rooms. This is true no matter what
style or design you are employing in your room. A Louie
Phillipe bedroom group can look entirely different in white,
than it does in espresso. The furniture can be exactly the
same, but the results in the room dramatically different.

While this is an extreme example (because using all-white
furniture can be a statement unto itself) the principal is
sound. If you have a smaller room, and want to make it seem
bigger, you can utilize lighter color furniture. Conversely,
if you want to make a bigger room feel cozier, put darker
furniture in it.

This is not simply a property of aesthetics, but a principal
of ergonomics and physics. It has to do with how the eye
perceives light and color. Lighter objects reflect external
light cast upon them, back to the eye. The brain is able to
see and distinguish more in the room. This gives the
impression of a greater size. On the other hand, darker
objects absorb the light cast upon them, causing the area to
appear smaller and more closed in.

So if your goal is to make a large room feel more expansive,
dress it in lighter furniture. It is why you often see
advertising photos of apartments, frequently using modern
white furniture, bathed in bright light. Libraries, on the
other hand, which are generally enormous rooms, increase their
feeling of comfort by using darker furniture and spot
lighting. This gives a more inviting appearance to their
users.

The same can be done in your home. It does not have to be a
dramatic difference. Combined with your lighting, you can use
honey finish, light maple, or rustic pine to make a room feel
bigger. Likewise, use cherry, espresso, or walnut to make the
room seem more intimate.

Deciding how you want to represent the room, while important,
is something you can choose on the spot, while looking at
furniture. Sometimes, the best ideas are formed subliminally,
on the spot. Just keep the concepts in the back of your mind.